JUST IN: Rivers Youths Stage Solidarity Protest in Response to Defection of 27 Lawmakers [VIDEO]

Large numbers of Ogoni youths in the Rivers South-East senatorial district, on Tuesday, marched through the streets in a display of solidarity with Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

This comes in the wake of escalating political tensions within the state, marked by the recent defection of 27 state lawmakers from the PDP to the APC.

The mass defection, the lawmakers said, is due to dissatisfaction with internal division within the PDP, particularly the dispute surrounding the position of National Secretary.

Commentators, however, suggest that the move is more deeply rooted in the ongoing power struggle between Governor Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Governor Fubara, in a recent statement, vowed not to “surrender our mandate and progress to intimidation, blackmail and deliberate sabotage.” This followed a statement by Wike, who accused Fubara of “importing the crisis through his actions” and declared, “I can’t stand it. What is happening now (in Rivers) is what Odili said in his book: ‘Give a man power and money, then you will know the person.’ If you haven’t given man power and money then you don’t know the person.”